On politics in the Golden State

Berman, Sherman battle to the end [Google+ hangout]

Times reporter Jean Merl will join city editor Shelby Grad in a Google+ hangout at 1:30 p.m. to discuss the two Democratic House veterans battling for the San Fernando Valley's 30th District.

Reps. Howard Berman and Brad Sherman are locked what has
become one of the costliest and most contentious congressional races in the state. The two continued to pound each other as their campaigns entered the final weekend before the election.

Volunteers for Rep. Howard Berman planned to fan out
throughout the San Fernando Valley's 30th District to distribute a double-message
door hanger. One side features a photo of
an angry Sherman reaching for Berman when things got physical at a Pierce
College debate earlier this month. The flip
side takes an entirely different tack — it shows Berman when he was invited to
join President Obama at a fundraiser earlier this year and lists some of Berman’s endorsers, including Gov. Jerry Brown, both
of California’s U.S. senators, L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the Los Angeles
Times and the L.A. Daily News. One of Berman’s final two mailers strikes similar themes,
and the other provides a chart comparing the two congressmen’s records.

[...]

[Campaign spokesman John] Schwada said Sherman currently is airing two cable TV ads, one a
positive piece about his family and accomplishments for constituents and
another slamming Berman for travels abroad financed by taxpayers or
special interests. The last piece of campaign mail will land in
mailboxes over the weekend, but Schwada wouldn’t say what it contains.

Sherman has campaigned
on his accessibility and visibility at community events and has tried to turn
Berman’s long list of endorsements from national political figures on both
sides of the aisle into a shortcoming.